Man accused of harassing, extorting refugee family in Spokane

An Iraqi woman and her daughter who resettled in Spokane are accusing a former board member of a refugee organization of threatening, extorting and recording them as he pursued a romantic relationship with the daughter.

For the past several months the women reported to Spokane police a man they thought was helping them resettle in the area has been following them, threatening to deport them and spying on them from a camera installed in the bathroom, while pretending to be an FBI agent, according to a warrant filed last week.

The man, who has not been arrested or charged, was a former board member of Refugee Connections Spokane, a nonprofit organization that specializes in helping acclimate older refugees to the Spokane area. He is a refugee from Sudan.

Marijke Fakasiieiki, the non-profit’s executive director, said the man has been “suspended barring an internal investigation on our end.”

In recently filed court documents, the women family told police the man helped them to get settled when they arrived in Spokane more than nine months ago. He helped them set up internet, get green cards and file for Section 8 Housing.

All the while, they assumed he was working for Refugee Connections. However, Fakasiieiki said the family was never even a client.

“We were not knowledgeable about that,” she said. “He wasn’t working as a paid employee.”

Fakasiieiki and Refugee Connections were recently made aware of the situation when police began their investigation.

Court documents allege he took pictures of their passports, IDs and Social Security cards while telling them he “needed the information for setting up housing.”

He also posed as an FBI agent, at one point showing them an ID that had “FBI” written in green and a badge with a photo. He reportedly told them would “make problems” and would have them arrested or deported if they crossed him.

An FBI spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

The daughter said the man has been pursuing her romantically for at least nine months, and has “told her that he loves her and wants to be in a relationship,” court documents say. She told police he’s showed up to her school, Spokane Community College, several times, even though he should have had no idea she’d be there, leading her to believe he bugged or tapped her car with a tracking device.

Court documents say the women also suspect he installed a surveillance camera in their apartment after he gave them a phone charger and told them to install it in the bathroom. After inspecting it closer, they noticed a small round lens on the front.

Police were able to test the device and confirmed it was a camera that stored video on tiny memory cards.

When the younger woman confronted him, he told her he “put it there because he wanted to know who she was talking to on the phone,” according to court records.

The women told police they were scared the man would spread the photographs and videos to their family. They were also worried he was deliberately isolating them.

On Feb. 7, the two women drove to the court house with the intention of applying for a protection order, but when they arrived, the man was waiting for them, court documents say. He told them he would send them “out of America if she continues with this and goes through with it.”

Since the harassment started, both women told police they were afraid to leave their apartment. The younger woman has stopped taking classes at Spokane Community College out of fear.

On March 23, Detective Shawn Pegram applied for a search warrant to gain access to three Facebook accounts police believe to be affiliated with the suspect. Pegram also seized the bathroom camera and was able to access a video file.